Asking this since I’ve always been told the former and that your bladder rupturing from not going to the toilet is a myth and the story of Tycho Brahe is too old to be reliable. But in recent years, I’ve seen articles about people drinking alcohol and passing out and their bladders bursting because the sensations got dulled (which still shouldn’t affect the sphincters giving way due to the pressure before the bladder actually ruptures, since it’s about the sphincters being not physically strong enough to hold back the pressure).
The existence of overflow incontinence would seem to contradict this story from 2020, for example. Alcohol dulls the urge to urinate, but overflow incontinence often happens in absence of this urge as well, and when the detrusor muscles (which squeeze the bladder) aren’t working.
What’s the straight dope here?
Generally our organs don’t rupture without some other function. In your example, we probably don’t have good studies to reflect how long humans can hold urine in until “something” happens. We do have good studies on trauma patients, and I think that would be where the rupturing would be.